By JOHN HOLL

Published: November 13, 2004

Ten days after voters went to the polls, a councilman was declared the mayor of New Jersey's second-largest city Friday in a decision delayed by absentee and provisional ballots.

The councilman, Jerramiah T. Healy, who is also a former municipal court chief judge, won the special election with 17,401 votes, beating his closest opponent, Assemblyman Louis M. Manzo, by 2,242 votes. Moments after the county clerk certified the election Friday, Mr. Healy, who was one of 11 candidates, was sworn in as acting mayor in a ceremony held in the old Jersey City courthouse.

''We are going to achieve the heights that Jersey City is destined to achieve,'' Mr. Healy said as he stood in front of an audience that included Senator Jon Corzine, Congressman Robert Menendez and the State Senate president, Richard J. Codey, who will become New Jersey's acting governor on Tuesday. ''And we will achieve as we all work together with the 240,000 people of this city and all the people of Hudson County.''

A special election was held after Glenn D. Cunningham, who was elected mayor in 2001, died of a heart attack in May. Mr. Healy will serve out the remainder of Mr. Cunningham's term, which ends in June, and said that he planned to run for a full four-year term in the election to be held in May.

''I am certain that Glenn is looking down, not just on me but on everyone here in this room, everyone assembled and all of these elected officials, and I'm sure he is smiling because I believe that Glenn would be happy to see this and see all of this unity here in Hudson County,'' Mr. Healy said.

The mayoral campaign was marked by feisty exchanges and the tearing down of opponents' banners by campaign aides. In one campaign attack, a photo was posted on the Internet showing Mr. Healy naked, unconscious and slumped on his front porch after a night of drinking.

''It's time to put the backbiting and infighting of the past year in Jersey City and Hudson County behind us,'' Mr. Healy said. ''It's time for all of us to stand together and unite.''

Mr. Manzo conceded the race Friday in a letter he sent to Mr. Healy. ''As your challenger, I hope that I was able to bring some of our city's most pressing issues to the forefront, and I trust that they will be considered by your administration,'' Mr. Manzo wrote.

Jersey City has experienced impressive business and residential growth in the last several years, partly because the Sept. 11 terror attack led many Manhattan businesses to relocate across the Hudson River.

Mr. Healy said he would focus his efforts on hiring more police officers, filling the city's many potholes and working on ways to get guns off the streets.